Mike Caudle tames the wind, wins at Watuppa

Wind, rain, sun, clouds, we had it all. It blew really hard out of the west-northwest all day, with sustained winds averaging 20mph and peak gusts to 37mph! Water temps were in the upper 50s; the air temp dropped throughout the day from the mid 50s to the mid 40s by weigh-in. It was more like a March Easter Bunny Open than a late April spring event.

Despite the conditions 7 of the 13 anglers caught limits and no one was shut out. In addition, three fish in the 4-pound range were weighed. Not a bad showing for our club here in a pre-spawn tournament when one looks at our history on this lake.

In the end it was Mike Caudle who came out on top with a limit of largemouth that weighed in at 10.63 lbs. Like many others, Mike fished very shallow; he caught his winning sack on a variety of baits that included senko, chatterbait, brush hog, and others. Jeff Jenness claimed second place with his limit of 9.69 pounds, comprised of 4 largemouth and one of the day’s two smallmouth (Ed Doyle caught the other). In third was Bill Wright with a limit weighing 9.43 lbs, anchored by the day’s lunker, a 4.19 lb. largemouth.